Yes, we will have to agree to disagree, but I'll stick to what I've seen on tape (and I've seen an awful lot) and I've seen, as others have, a guy who throughout his career has had trouble getting open against middle-of-the-road corners on many, many ocassions. It's not like he's been matched up against a great corner every week, lol. When you run down the list of guys he faced and failed to dominate, it's really not much of an argument about him not being a top player. He never was a top player, that's just a fact. I'll give him one bit of credit that he was clutch at the right times... but lots of guys were, that doesn't make them great players.
His injuries change nothing, because when he was on the field and healthy, he still didn't dominate.
Also, I said he was marginal pertaining to his overall career. I think that assesement is totally fair and accurate. Because you were injured here and there doesn't remove the fact of what you produced on the field when you were on the field. You don't get any passes, this is professional football. What you produce is what you produce and that's what you're judged by in the end. There are plenty receivers that missed lots of games, and lots of guys that played hurt. That's the reality of the NFL. You're going to have to do it. Yet, those guys still produced better than Branch and didn't have weak games against questionable corners on a regular basis. He was always middle-of-the-road even when healthy.
He wasn't exactly on an upswing before then...
30 years old is not old these days for a receiver, (a RB yes, not a WR), and I can remember Jerry Rice long after 30 (about 35 actually) blowing his knee out badly in San Fran and he came back fine, produced well and was still one of the top players in football and at the time the Doctors didn't think Rice had much left. Isaac Bruce is another guy I can point to who bounced back very well over the years from various injuries. Terrell Owens... all of those guys bounced back and produced. That's the difference between a great player and a marginal one, because even at less than 100%, the guys I mentioned were still better than 95% of the guys out there at different times.
The mistake people have made is putting Branch in the class of some of the elite receivers and a lot of it has to do with the mediocre season he had (and it was mediocre) where the Patriots won the SB and he had a good game and snagged MVP. He doesn't and never belonged in the elite class.
It's not a bad word against Branch to say he's a marginal/middle-of-the-road player, it's just a classing of where some players happen to be. If you think he's an elite player or was an elite player, then okay, but what he's done
on the field says he's not and never was.